Growing Together
by Ashadow77
Summary: Dick has been lying to Babs about something... and she's going to find out what it is. But will this secret put her in danger? Dick/Babs. Rated T for language and soon to be other stuff... Maybe M?
1. The Beginning

**Author's Note: Hiya :) So this is the first Fanfiction I have written in about two years. I stopped for a while and forgot all of my other account info blah blah blah and eventually created this new account and new story. **

**This isn't the actual story, this is just how I imagine Dick and Babs met and how they discovered each other's vigilante identities. This is kind of a prologue, I guess, so enjoy. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice or any of these characters (unfortunately).**

_Nine Years Ago_

Bruce Wayne's Manor 9:28 P.M

Nine year old Barbara Gordon sat with her shoulders slouched and her cheek rested on her left fist. Bruce Wayne had been holding a boring charity event for a circus that had just passed through Gotham. Bruce Wayne was one of the richest men in the whole city, so obviously the guests at this party were going to be spoiled snobs who probably didn't even care about the circus. Barbara was neither rich, nor remotely snobby, but her father and her were invited because Jim Gordon was the Commissioner of GCPD. Commissioner Gordon had attended many of these galas before, but this was the first time Barbara had ever been dragged along.

And now she was bored out of her mind.

"Daddy, when do we get to go home? I'm tired." Barbara groaned, blowing a piece of red hair out of her face.

Jim Gordon looked down at Barbara and chuckled. "I'm sorry, honey, but not for at least another hour or two." He leaned down and whispered in his daughter's ear. "But trust me, I'm as sick of this party as you."

Barbara smirked and fiddled with one of the gems on her red dress. Her father had to buy her a new one for this event because dresses were not a common thing in Barbara Gordon's wardrobe.

For what seemed like centuries, Barbara watched old people laughing and drinking champagne. A few times she even spotted Bruce Wayne, who had at minimum three women around him at all times. But, so far, the highlight of Barbara's night had been watching a drunken man fall on the dance floor.

Barbara sighed and stood up, facing Commissioner Gordon who had started to doze off. "I'm going for a walk." She simply stated.

"Don't wander off too far, Barbara, and don't get into trouble." Was all she heard before making her way through the throngs of people clustered throughout the ballroom. From the aerial view, Barbara looked like a tiny ruby making its way through giant walls of black. When she exited the huge domed room, Barbara turned down multiple hallways, admiring tall paintings and the lavish way that Bruce Wayne lived. But it wasn't that much later that she had realized that she was totally and completely lost.

"Well, crap." She muttered. Her father's words telling her to not wander far softly floated in the back of her mind. "Oops." Barbara peered around and saw a light on in one of the rooms at the end of the hallway she was standing in. She walked over and pushed the door open to see an almost empty room, except for one boy sitting in the corner staring at a small picture in his hand. Barbara cleared her throat and entered the room. Maybe he could help her find her way back.

"Can I help you?" The boy asked, quickly shoving the photograph in his pocket. He stood up as Barbara walked in.

"Sorry to bother you, I just kind of got, um, lost." The boy smirked and nodded.

"Yeah, it took me a few days to figure this place out too. I'm guessing you're looking for the charity event?" He continued when Barbara nodded. "Well, you managed to get to the total opposite side of the manor from the party, but you're not missing much. These things suck."

Barbara laughed, "Yeah, it was pretty boring in there."

"I'm Dick," The boy said, "Dick Grayson."

"Barbara Gordon." She replied.

The two stood there awkwardly for a few moments before Dick smiled, "Seeing as these parties are a total drag, would you like to go make them somewhat fun?"

Barbara raised her eyebrow, "How can we make them fun?"

"I have a few ideas." Dick said, taking her by the wrist and directing her back to the ballroom.

_Two Hours Later_

"Barbara, what was this mention that I heard of a little redhead girl and black-haired boy slipping _laxatives _into champagne glasses?" James Gordon asked his daughter on the drive home from Wayne Manor.

Barbara only smiled, "I have no idea daddy."

_Four Years later (Five years ago)_

"Babs!" Dick screamed.

"Dick!"

"W-why is this happening?" He sounded on the brink of tears.

"I-I don't know. We should get someone..." Barbara ran her fingers through her hair. "What do we do?"

Dick just shook his head. "This is a disaster. Emphasis on the _dis._" He rubbed the back of his neck. "We have to do something. I can't go on much longer." Dick looked Barbara straight in the eyes. "If we don't make it through this I want you to know that you're my best friend." A cold chill blew over both of the teens.

"Ah-hem" Both thirteen year olds snapped around to be greeted by a tall bald man with a thin brown mustache.

"Alfred, you have to help!" Dick yelled.

Alfred arched his eyebrow and rolled his eyes. "What is the cataclysmic event this time, Master Richard?"

Both Barbara and Dick looked at each other and in unison screamed, "There's no ice cream left!"

"You two astonish me." The butler mumbled.

The scene was quite a hilarious one. Barbara holding an empty tub of chocolate ice cream, and Dick supporting himself dramatically with the freezer door. Alfred set down the tray he was holding and moved a bag of peas out of the way. Both Dick and Barbara immediately started laughing at the brand new tub of ice cream that was hidden away.

"Alfred saves the day!" Babs yelled after Dick grabbed the ice cream, two spoons, and ran out of the kitchen. Barbara quickly followed Dick to his room and plopped down on his bed beside him, grabbing a spoon from his hand.

"That crisis was averted." Dick said with a smirk on his face.

Babs laughed and took a scoop of ice cream. "I think if someone heard our little drama scenes out of context they would call the police. Or even worse, Batman."

Dick's smirk grew ever so slightly, but Babs didn't pay any mind to it. "It's fun hanging out with you again, Dick. You've been ditching me for the past week." Barbara ate her spoonful of chocolaty goodness and laid back on one of Dick's pillows.

Dick sighed and swallowed a spoonful of ice cream. "Yeah, about that Babs, I'm really sorry. It's my-"

"Judo classes. I know." Babs fiddled with the hem of her shirt. "It doesn't mean you can't call."

_One Year Later (Four Years Ago)_

"Stay right there!" Robin yelled into the dark corner of an alley. If he blinked hard enough he could just make out the dark figure of the person he was chasing.

"Oh come on, Boy Wonder. Let loose. Have a little fun." A giggle followed the little taunt. "Come chase me."

Robin scoffed, "I don't know who you think you are, but a _girl _Batman is not going to work out!" The figure swept right past him and swung onto a fire escape. "Catch me if you can."

The girl smirked and jumped up the fire escape to the roof of the building. Robin followed and spoke into his headset, "Batman, she's on the top of the Old Gotham Hote- Oh. You found her."

Robin climbed onto the roof to see the Bat_girl_ being held by her cape by Batman.

The girl looked at her feet and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Well, this is awkward." Robin narrowed his eyes and looked at Batgirl more closely. She looked a little familiar.

Batman grumbled. "You have been running around Gotham for weeks under this guise. I don't know what you are doing, but you don't have any idea what you are getting yourself into."

"Excuse me, but I do. It's no big secret that Gotham is home to some of the biggest bads out there." She paused, trying to see if she was pushing it too far. "I can fight. I know Gotham like that back of my hand. I can do this. And no one, not even _Batman_ can hold me back. Almost thirty thugs are in jail because of me, and I have only been doing this for two and a half weeks!" She crossed her arms and Batman let go of her cape. There was a long, uncomfortable silence.

"I can't stop you." Is all Batman said.

Batgirl looked from Batman to Robin and then back to Batman. "No, you can't." She threw a smoke pellet at the ground and within seconds she was gone.

"Well, she has the disappearing act down." Is all Robin could mumble.

_One Month Later_

Dick was sitting down in the Batcave still in his Robin uniform from the night before. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find a lead on Batgirl anywhere. Every time he found something that would reveal her identity he hit so many firewalls that he had to restart his whole entire computer system. Dick removed his domino mask and sighed. He stretched his arms and leaned back on his chair, closing his eyes. He should probably get up and get into regular clothes; Babs was supposed to come over this morning and she'd kill him if he didn't even show up to a meeting at his own house, but Dick was just so tired.

"Boy Wonder."

Dick's eyes shot open. It was Batgirl's voice. Dick jumped up out of his chair and stood in a fighting stance not to see Batgirl, but to see Babs.

Oh boy.

"You have _a lot _of explaining to do." Babs said, crossing her arms.

Dick rubbed the back of his neck. Bruce was going to _kill _him. Dick's mind was jumbled and he didn't know what to say, but soon realization began to dawn on him. "Boy Wonder..." _No, she couldn't be..._ Dick looked up at Babs and narrowed his eyes. "I think you have some explaining to do, too."


	2. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: This takes place after Before The Dawn. Also, Superboy knows the secret... It'll be explained later. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice or any of these characters (unfortunately).**

_Present Day _

Barbara's hand slammed down on the alarm clock snooze button mere seconds after the shrill noise began to fill the air. She rolled over in her bed and tried to ignore her conscious telling her to get up so she wasn't late, but her bed just felt so _good_. Barbara had never been a morning person as long as she could remember. And Babs felt like she was on Cloud 9 while laying in her warm cocoon and slowly filled with dread just _thinking _about having to leave her sweatpants and blankets for her cape and cowl.

_Maybe just a few more minutes of sleep..._

The alarm's shriek filled the air once more, resulting in the clock to receive an even harder hit that the one before that. _Fine. _Babs groaned as she sat up and stretched her arms over her head. She rubbed her eyes and fumbled for her glasses on the desk next to her. She glanced at the clock and resisted the urge to forget the mission and to just go back to sleep. It was 2:35 in the morning. She had only been in bed for 45 minutes. In the past few weeks Barbara was lucky to get at most two hours of sleep a night (and maybe she was even lucky enough to get a nap after missions) and the lack of sleep was taking a severe toll on her this morning. Between working with Dick disguised as Batman, team missions, and college classes, sleep was out of the question for Barbara. Before she could change her mind and go back to sleep Babs slid out of bed and dressed in a Gotham University sweatshirt and jeans.

She ran her fingers through her hair while brushing her teeth and putting in her contacts trying to look at least a little bit presentable. It didn't matter what she looked like now anyway because soon she would be at Wayne Manor and donning her Batsuit. Cursing herself for brushing her teeth before she had the chance to drink some coffee, Babs grabbed the keys to her motorcycle and walked outside into freezing cold rain.

"Perfect." She grumbled sarcastically as she squeezed her head into her helmet and started driving off to the Wayne Manor. Because Barbara's apartment was only about two miles away from Bruce Wayne's mansion and there was basically no traffic this early on a Saturday morning it didn't take Babs long to reach her destination; but that didn't affect how _cold _it was. Barbara typed in the code to the giant rod-iron gates and drove up to the mansion. When she braked her bike and walked up to the front door she was soaked to the bone. Alfred opened the door before Barbara even knocked and she ran inside welcoming the warmth of the house.

"Miss Gordon, one would expect a person to transport by car during weather like this." Alfred stated while taking her helmet from her.

Babs tried rubbing warmth into her arms and looked up at Alfred, "It's very hard to do that when you don't have a car, but thanks for the advice. Are Dick and Tim already in the cave?" She asked the Butler.

Alfred nodded. "You know how where to go." Babs gave a two-fingered salute to Alfred as walked off towards Bruce's study. She tried to prevent her boots from squeaking on the hardwood, but ultimately failed. You could hear her walking from Blüdhaven .

Barbara entered the study and walked over to the Grandfather clock standing at the far corner. She moved the small hand to the 10 and the big hand to the 47 mark. Barbara could hear a small click that would have gone completely unnoticed if not being listened for. With a big tug she pulled the Grandfather clock away from the wall and walked down the seemingly never-ending staircase, closing the clock behind her. The warmth from the manor didn't follow Babs down to the cave, and her soaked jeans and sweatshirt felt like ice packs against her skin. Dick and Tim, already in their Nightwing and Robin suits, looked up at Babs and greeted her.

She shivered in return.

"Why are you wet?" Dick asked stupidly.

Barbara rolled her eyes and walked over to the glass case where her Batsuit was hung up. "You know, Dick, there's this magical force called _rain._ It's this strange phenomenon that causes water to just fall from the sky. And when water touches things, stuff happens to get wet." She heard Tim laugh as she ducked into a dark corner and changed as quickly as possible into her suit. She practically had to peel her soaked clothes off of her.

When Barbara was out of view Dick whacked Tim on the back of the head.

"What was that for?" Tim questioned, rubbing his skull.

"For laughing." Duck replied, crossing his arms.

Tim smirked, "Well, then don't ask silly questions."

Barbara walked back over to both boys now in her suit. She felt 100x better now that she wasn't wet and the thermal layer in her suit was now keeping her warm.

"So, when do we leave?" Babs asked.

"Now; we were waiting on you slowpoke." Nightwing replied. All three of them exited the cave and zeta-tubed to the Hall of Justice.

"_Recognized: Nightwing B01, Robin B20, Batgirl B16." _All three of them stepped out of the Zeta Tubes one by one. Batgirl hated the feeling of traveling through the tubes; she had never gotten used to the nauseating feeling she felt in the pit of her stomach whenever she stepped through one of them. Barbara had asked Batman once how the tubes worked and she regretted learning the answer ever since. The tubes literally pull you apart molecule by molecule and put you back together again. Babs didn't even want to think of what would happen if something went wrong while you were being put back together.

The three batkids stepped into the Hall to a very tired looking team. M'gann yawned into her hand while Beast Boy leaned onto his sister, his eyes springing open whenever they would flutter closed. L'gann sat on the floor, resting his head on M'gann's leg. Conner stood at the opposite side of the room with his arms crossed.

Nightwing looked around. "Okay, so we are still missing Wonder girl, Blue Beetle, Bumblebee, and Impulse." Nightwing looked at the clock. It was 3:25 in the morning. The whole team was directed to meet at 3:30. The team stood in silence while waiting for the remaining four members. Babs stood by Dick, who was staring at a computer monitor intently. The monitor was blank. Babs looked at Nightwing, back to the monitor, and then back at Nightwing. His eyes didn't move from the screen an inch. Batgirl had to hide a smirk on her face; Dick was totally zoned-out.

"Stop thinking so loud, Boy Wonder." She whispered, breaking his trance.

"Sorry." He replied bluntly.

Babs arched her eyebrow. Dick was usually brighter than this. Ever since Artemis' death and the total and complete destruction of Mount Justice, Dick started closing off from everyone. Even Wally. Even _her_.

But before she could question Dick's behavior, the zeta-tube spoke up.

"_Recognized: Wonder Girl B21, Bumblebee B17, Blue Beetle B22." _There was a flash of white light before each one appeared. Babs looked up at the clock. 3:27 AM.

"Where's Bart?" Blue Beetle asked after looking around the room.

"Late." Garfield said, his eyes closed.

Tim smirked, "For the fastest kid alive he always seems to be the last to show up."

"_Recognized: Impulse B23." _

Bart ran out of the tubes and looked up at the clock. "Ha! Not late."

3:29

"We applaud your attendance." Nightwing said, a small smile on his face. Babs looked at him with her eyes narrowed. He was smiling, but the emotion didn't reach his eyes. "Now, let's get down to business. The mission to rescue Blue Beetle, Impulse, and Beast Boy was a success." He cleared his throat. "Miss Martian even managed to..." He looked up at M'gann. "take out the main enemy." M'gann looked at the ground and put her hand over her mouth. Nightwing looked away and tried to focus on anything _but _Miss Martian. What?

Oh, something was definitely going on.

Nightwing continued. "The reason we are here so early is to infiltrate The Reach's ships out of the public's eyes. We know that they have now made it known to Earth that they want to communicate with us, but they obviously excluded fact that they have been testing on humans since they've gotten here. For this mission we need the ultimate stealth team. For this mission Bumblebee, Batgirl, Miss Martian, Impulse and I will be breaching the Reach's main ship. Robin, " Dick looked at Tim, "I want you to lead another team. Beast Boy, Blue Beetle, Wonder Girl and Superboy; you will all be backup if things go wrong. If we send you a signal, we need your strength to break in and get us out. Understood?"

Everyone in the room nodded.

"Good, we leave in ten." Nightwing said.

The room softly hummed with the noise of the pre-mission chatter. Barbara started to walk over to Cassie and Karen when she heard hushed whispers from another room. She was standing right by the door so she was pretty sure that she was the only one who could hear the secret conversation. Babs looked around and realized that Nightwing and Miss Martian were both not there.

_Stop being so nosy, Babs. It's not your business. Nope. Not at all. Don't you dare. _Babs didn't like eavesdropping on her friends, but something was up and she wanted to know what it was. She stood by the closed door and strained her ears to hear everything that was being said.

"...didn't know! Why wouldn't you tell everyone about this? Artemis... the way she looked at me..." Miss Martian's voice cracked and Barbara could hear a sniffle. She was crying? And what about Artemis? She can't really look at _anyone _anymore.

Nightwing sighed, "I know that you didn't know, but you need to understand that this state you're leaving your victims in is wrong. I don't know if we can fix Kaldur now, and now Artemis is on this mission alone..."

"What?" Babs whispered to herself. This was not making any sense at all. She looked around the room to check if anyone else was hearing this. Even Superboy seemed to not be paying attention and with his hearing she thought that he would be questioning everything alongside her. But instead he just stood there, a scowl on his face, looking at his feet. Barbara heard M'gann sniffle again and saw Conner's face tighten just a bit.

He _can _hear this.

Batgirl abandoned the secret conversation and walked across the room to Superboy. He looked up at her and raised his eyebrow. She and Conner never really conversed much. Yeah, they had gone on missions with each other and trained together, but they never talked unless it was about business. So Babs walking up to him was totally taboo.

"What do you know?" Batgirl whispered. She locked eyes with Conner and put her hands on her hips.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Superboy said, peering around the room to see if anyone was listening. No one was.

Barbara had to stifle a snort. "Oh please, I'm Batgirl for God's sakes. I know when someone is lying to me. And you are lying. I know you can hear what they are saying in the other room." Babs cracked her knuckles. "There are secrets being kept. And I _hate it_ when people keep secrets from me."

Conner just shook his head. He looked down and then back up at Babs as Dick and M'gann walked back into the room.

"Okay team, let's go." Nightwing stated. Batgirl sighed and walked away from Conner without another word. Everyone began to load onto the Bioship and buckled themselves into their seats. M'gann sat in the main seat and began flying the ship with a blank look on her face, her eyes slightly red. The trip to the Reach's ship was about half an hour long and Babs didn't know whether she should push the questions out of her mind and focus on the mission, or whether she should question Dick until his ears bleed.

She decided to go with the first choice. She needed to focus on the mission and there were too many people to overhear anyway. Superboy glanced at her from across the ship, but looked away when she noticed him. So there was something M'gann, Superboy, and Nightwing knew. Who else was in on whatever they were hiding?

Seven hours later and the mission went off without a hitch. It almost seemed too easy to have gotten the information that Nightwing needed and to have not been discovered by the Reach. But Babs was way too tired to question anything right now. Seven hours of a stealth mission and running only on 45 minutes of sleep had Batgirl totally and completely beat. She was so tired in fact, that she forgot to interrogate Dick when she, him, and Tim returned to Wayne Manor. Babs just fell asleep on a leather chair in the Batcave still in her suit.

"Babs..." Dick shook her arm. "Come on, Babs. At least go to a spare bed upstairs."

Barbara rubbed her eyes and looked up at him. "I... need to talk to you." She mumbled, still half asleep.

Dick arched his eyebrow, "I think that can wait. C'mon." He lifted her out of the chair and helped her up the stairs and to a bed. Babs rubbed her eyes as Dick pulled a pair of sweats and a t-shirt out of a dresser. She looked around and realized they were in his old room.

"Your clothes are still wet. That's what you get when you leave them in a ball on the floor." He handed her the spare clothes and left the room while she changed. She was still tired as all hell, but she was going to find out what Dick was hiding from her.

"You can come back in, Pixie Boots." Dick walked back into the room and rolled his eyes. He was still in his Nightwing suit, but his domino mask wasn't on. He smirked and sat on the bed next to her.

"That mission went well." Dick said, looking out the window. It was about 10:30 in the morning still, so it was still bright outside considering the rain clouds hovering in the sky.

Babs nodded. She didn't know how to confront Dick about what she had heard. The last time she remembered him ever keeping a secret from her was when she didn't know he was Robin. Since then, they had always told each other everything; even pointless stuff that neither of them would give a damn about. That was their friendship, both of them were open books to the other. Dick had been acting strange for a while, but Babs just blamed it on extra stress. With Batman millions of light-years away , Artemis -dead?- and Mount Justice completely blown to shit; it wasn't surprising that Dick felt that he had a lot on his plate. This morning was the first mission since Aqualad had been taken out and Dick seemed severely on edge the whole time. And with the whole secret conversation... Babs couldn't even think straight.

"Is there something you want to... tell me?" Barbara asked, biting her bottom lip.

Dick looked at her confused. "... No?"

She looked at her feet. Oh, okay. "Nothing? Nothing about the whole situation with Artemis and Aqualad?"

Dick just shook his head, but she saw something flash in his eyes, "You're tired and talking crazy, Babs, get some sleep here. I'm going to go down to the cave and try to decode some of this intel we got from The Reach." He squeezed her hand and left her in the room alone.

He had just lied straight to her face.

"What the hell?" Babs remembered saying before she laid down and fell into the deepest sleep she had had in a week.


	3. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Sorry if the story has been a little slow moving... This chapter and on is where the plot gets more intense and stuff actually happens. I basically have the next three chapters planned out in my head, but it's going to be hard writing it all because of the makeup work I have from school because of Hurricane Sandy. I'll try my best to update as soon as possible. I'm also still undecided whether I should keep the story T later on or make it M... Feedback on that would be nice. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice or any of these characters (unfortunately).**

* * *

"Maneuver Two." Babs heard Dick call out from across the training room. She cracked her neck and stared at her opponent, Tim.

They had been training in the Hall of Justice for three hours straight. Barbara's sweatpants sported lovely blood stains on both knees and a large rip by the ankle, her black tank top had a tear in the lower back area, and her ponytail hung loosely from her head. Babs had to re-tape her knuckles numerous times throughout the training session.

She waved Tim towards her, "Come at me." She smirked. Tim narrowed his eyes and ran at Barbara with his battle staff pointed forward. He twirled the staff twice over his head and aimed it at Bab's ribs, swinging it like a baseball bat. Barbara jumped out of the way of the oncoming blow. She grabbed the staff with her left hand and used the momentum from Tim's swing to push him down and punch his back with her right hand. Tim fell to the floor and rolled onto his back.

"Nice job, Barbara." Tim said as he stuck out his hand and Babs helped him up.

"Thanks." She replied, pushing stray strands of hair out of her face. She adjusted the tape on her hands as Dick walked over, his sunglasses covering his eyes. "Your turn, Boy Wonder. You haven't gotten into the ring yet and I feel like kicking your ass." Barbara was only half-joking. The discovery that Dick has been keeping secrets from her had really left a sour taste in her mouth. She felt like hitting something (especially Dick) and had been very excited for training today.

Dick smirked, "Kick my ass? Pshh, dream on, Babs." Barbara knew he was joking, but that didn't stop her from thinking about smacking that stupid smile off of his face. Dick could sense that she was acting tense around him since the mission two days ago, she knew he did, but he still didn't know what for. He probably thought it was over something stupid. Maybe this _was _something stupid. Maybe Babs' gut feeling was totally wrong and they were talking about some past event. Maybe she was over thinking. Maybe she was looking for excuses.

No. Her gut has never been wrong before.

"Gear up, Twinkle Toes. Tim, go take a break." Babs said. Tim nodded and left, probably going to Garfield's room. Him, Miss Martian, and Superboy were staying in the Hall of Justice until other arrangements could be figured out. Barbara cracked her knuckles as Dick taped his. He pulled the strap to his sunglasses tighter so they wouldn't fall off of his face. He yanked off his t-shirt so he was only wearing his white ginny-tee. Babs couldn't help but notice how _good_ his arms looked. How every little muscle was perfectly toned, but not overwhelmingly huge. How amazing they would feel around her-

_NOPE, NOPE, YOU ARE MAD AT HIM. HE IS KEEPING SECRETS. NO THINKING LIKE THAT. NOPE. NOT AT ALL._

As Dick was stepping into the ring, Barbara was already running at him, her fists prepped for a blow. Dick dodged the first punch to his face, but missed the second to his abdomen.

"Oof!" he gripped his stomach as Babs went for another punch. He grabbed her fist to prevent it from hitting his shoulder and twisted her arm behind her back. She cried out and stomped her heel down on his foot. She turned to face him just in time to block a kick to her chest. Dick did a back-handspring to put some space between them and pulled his escrima sticks out of his belt loops. He ran at her, one stick forward and swung the other stick from the side. It connected with Barbara's waist and she fell to the floor. Babs clutched her side as she kicked Dick's legs out from under him and he fell to the floor beside her. Barbara tackled him and straddled his stomach, pinning his arms above his head.

"Check mate." Babs was breathing hard, grinning down at Dick.

"Nope." Dick twisted his legs, folded them around Bab's neck, and slammed her down onto her back. He straddled her and smiled. "I win." He stuck his tongue out at her.

"Get off of me, Richard." Babs groaned.

Dick arched his eyebrow. "_Richard? _What the hell, Babs, why are you mad at me?" Barbara just rolled her eyes and tried to sit up. Dick grabbed her shoulders and pinned her down to the ground. "Answer me." He said, his eyebrows scrunched together in confusion.

"It's nothing." Should she ask him what he's lying to her about? Would he even tell her?

"I don't believe you."

Babs sighed and bit her bottom lip, "Would you lie to me?"

Dick hesitated, but eventually shook his head. "No, never." His voice cracked. God, it was so painfully obvious he was lying.

"Ever?"

Dick let go of her shoulders, but still straddled her. "What are you asking me, Babs?"

Barbara pushed him off of her and stood up. "Nothing, I already got my answer." Dick stood up too and faced her. Both stared into each other's blue eyes for an uncomfortably long time. She was catching on to him, Dick knew that, but he couldn't tell her. For the life of him, he couldn't tell her.

Their stare off was interrupted by a beeping noise, that Dick quickly recognized as his Comm link. He ran over to his bag, put the Comm in his ear faced away from Babs, and listened.

"Yeah... I know..." Barbara strained her ears to try and hear what was being said on the other line, but to no avail. She knew she wasn't going to get any information from Dick from this call; he was going to be as vague as possible. "I'll be there soon. Yeah, the usual spot. Bye." Dick turned back to Babs, who was shooting daggers at him with her eyes.

"I have to go." Was all he said.

"Oh really? I couldn't tell." Barbara pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes.

She could hear Dick sigh, "We'll talk about this later."

"Whatever."

And with that, Dick left. Babs wouldn't remember punching the wall until the next morning.

* * *

Barbara didn't go back to her apartment right after training as she had planned. When she left after Nightwing it had been about 9 o'clock at night and even though she had to go to Gotham and do her rounds as Batgirl soon, she couldn't ignore the urge to figure out what the hell Dick was doing behind her back.

And that's how Babs found herself in Blüdhaven trailing Dick, who was now in his Nightwing suit. She had gone to the Batcave as quick as she could after she left the Hall of Justice and donned her Batsuit (she hated keeping it in her apartment in fear that her roommate would find it). Finding Nightwing was not going to be easy, but she knew she could do it. Babs was a master hacker; she had no idea how she had developed the skill, but she could break about any computer code given to her. It took her barely ten minutes to hack the Zeta-tubes to find out where Nightwing had gone. It took her another two to hack the traffic lights and pinpoint his exact location. Babs had to give Dick some props though, he had hidden well. If Babs wasn't, well, _her_, then she doubted anyone would have found where he was going. Dick took so many secret alleys and routes to get to the place he was going just to stay out of public eye. He really only got caught on one traffic camera, and the only reason Babs knew it was him was because the gym bag she gave him for Christmas was slung over his shoulder.

Babs followed his every route from the Batcave. Why Blüdhaven? What could possibly be there? Batgirl landed on the roof of an old factory ten minutes after finding out where Nightwing was. Babs grabbed her grapple gun and shot it into the ground next to her. Holding the rope, she jumped off the side of the building and fell two stories before the rope stopped. Babs was hanging fifty feet off of the ground. She looked to her left to see a broken window and swung over to the sill, quickly crawling through it and into the factory. She jumped over to a giant stack of boxes without making a sound. Standing on top of the large metal boxes, Babs was still about 40 feet in the air, but she didn't dare move. She was in the perfect position. She was obscured by the cargo, but could still see everything going on below her.

Nightwing leaned back on a stack of crates with his arms crossed. He checked his watch and rubbed the back of his neck, his nervous tick. Nightwing looked up when a quick blur appeared out of seemingly nowhere. When Babs focused her eyes she had to keep her mental surprise from becoming verbal. Wally? What the hell was he doing here? He practically was anti _anything _regarding the team now. Especially since Artemis...

"She's not here yet?" Wally asked, a nervous look crossing his face. Dick shook his head.

"I have to tell you something." Dick sighed. "On one of our missions... M'gann... she fried Kaldur. She knows everything."

"When?" Wally asked, his eyes widening.

"About five days ago. M'gann told Conner everything...Both of them know now."

_Know what?! _Babs had to keep herself from shouting.

"Wait... if Kaldur is... Oh my God. She's alone in there?! Artemis is totally and completely alone in Black Manta's hands? What if they find out? Dick, is she okay? When was the last time you talked to her? WHY DID YOU WAIT SO LONG TO TELL ME THIS?" Wally's voice had risen a considerable amount.

_They're talking about Artemis again?_ _What is going on?!_

"Quiet down, Wally. I talked to her two days ago on a mission. She's fine. They don't know her identity. She'll be here in a few minutes." Dick sat on a small crate as Wally paced back and forth at a speed most would consider a sprint.

Babs was finding it very difficult to put together the pieces. So Dick, Wally, Conner, M'gann were in on something with... Artemis and Kaldur? Artemis is alive, Dick had made that very clear, but how? And what about Kaldur? Wouldn't it be bad to have Artemis alone with Kaldur, a traitor? And how did Dick contact Artemis at all during their last mission? Babs was with him the whole time and there was _no one_ who even remotely resembled Artemis.

Batgirl was trying so hard to figure out what was going on that it took her a few moments to realize that there was another person walking up to Wally and Dick. She had long black hair and tan skin and was wearing orange with black stripes. _Tigress._

Babs had recognized her from one of the many missions against the Reach. She was a big kahuna with Black Manta, and she was strutting in right next to Nightwing and Wally. Babs was just about to shout for the two boys to watch out, but she stopped dead in her tracks.

Wally grabbed the girl and kissed her like it was his last day living.

Now Babs was_ really_ confused. Until the girl ripped a pendant necklace off of her neck. Barbara had to blink a few times to make sure she wasn't seeing things, because seconds ago where Tigress was standing, Artemis now stood locked tightly in Wally's arms.

Dick stood next to the two silently, with a sad smile on his face.

Artemis broke away from Wally's embrace, but still held his hand tightly. "The Reach suspects nothing about me. I'm still in the clear. But we have a problem with Kaldur. Black Manta is trying to regenerate his brain. He plans on hiring Psimon to bring back his memory, which could put everyone in danger. If Psimon learns the secret it will all be over."

Dick's jaw clenched. "I'll talk to Miss Martian on that one. Maybe we can get her in and fix Kaldur before it's too late... I'll figure something out." He rubbed his neck with one hand and pinched the bridge of his nose with the other. Dick was the epitome of stress right now. "We are also in danger of another person on the team finding out about this. Right now it's only Superboy, M'gann, and I, but Batgirl has been getting very suspicious. I'm a good liar, but that girl can read me like a book. She's on to us."

"Look... Rob... I know that she's your closest friend and all, but the less people that know about this, the better. Batgirl is one of the most trust worthy people ever," _Well, except for spying on you al. _Babs thought, "but too many people will make everyone else suspicious. Not even the _Justice League _know about this." Artemis sighed. "Just try to keep lying for now... I fear this secret may not last that much longer, though."

Wally's grip on Artemis tightened, "Because that makes me feel so much better about this."

"Okay, we meet here again in two days. I'll talk to M'gann about helping Kaldur. God knows it will help her feel better about what she's done." Nightwing nodded to both of them and left. Wally and Artemis said their goodbyes between long kisses and soon both were gone.

Babs sat behind a crate, completely alone in the factory now.

And she didn't have a clue what to think.


	4. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: I usually don't like my stories... but I'm so damn proud of this chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice or any of these characters (unfortunately).**

* * *

_The Batcave, Three Years ago_

"Stop being such a butthead," Babs said with her hands on her hips. "You're such a bad liar, Grayson."

Dick raised his eyebrow, "I'm a very good liar, actually, you just have some freaky sixth sense that detects even the tiniest stretch of the truth." Both of them were standing in the Batcave alone, still donned in their suits after a long night of patrol. Dick had been quiet most of the night, which was the _total_ opposite of how he usually is. Babs knew something was wrong, but she waited until they got back to the Batcave to confront him about it.

Dick removed his domino mask and ran his fingers through his hair. Barbara waited in silence as Dick, who was still Robin at the time, sat down in a leather chair with his elbows on his knees, his head bowed and his hand rubbing the back of his neck.

"Zee broke up with me last night." He mumbled. It had been eating him up the whole time he was patrolling, and no matter how many jokes Babs had cracked the thought of Zatanna still lingered in the back of his mind.

Barbara didn't say anything, she just sat in the chair next to him and took hold of his free hand.

"It's not even like I didn't see this coming." Dick stated, his eyes closed. "We've been growing further apart for a while now and she broke it off as kindly as possible..." His voice cracked, making him clear his throat.

Babs squeezed his hand. "I know it hurts now, but eventually you'll see that it'll all be okay." He looked up at her and sighed. Babs tried giving him a weak smile and Dick nodded his head and looked back at the ground. Zatanna was Dick's real first love. Yeah, he had had flings with other girls and flirted like a little twit, but he really cared about Zee, but it looked like he would have to get over that now.

Both of them sat in quiet for a long moment. Barbara still held Dick's hand and stared at the ground as Dick sat in deep thought. Babs had a calming effect on Dick and the comfortable silence was a welcome one.

"Do you think I can still be friends with her?" Dick asked after quite some time.

Babs nodded, "I think you can do anything if you put your mind to it, Grayson."

Dick smiled slightly and took a deep breath. "Thanks, Babs." He let go of her hand and she hugged him tightly, in a way only best friends could be comfortable with.

Barbara smiled and ruffled his hair as she pulled away from the hug, "Come on, Boy Blunder, let's go get some ice cream."

"It's five in the morning, Albert would kill us if he caught us eating that this early."

Babs shrugged and stood up, "Yes, but ice cream is break-up food, and we are now under special circumstances."

Dick stood up and rolled his eyes, "You think ice cream is going to make this better?"

"Oh, Dick, ice cream makes _everything _better."

_Palo Alto, Present Day_

"So did you talk to M'gann about Kaldur yet?" Wally asked Dick as he opened his third beer. He handed Dick one and sat next to him on the couch.

Dick nodded, "Yeah, she said she's going to help. Tomorrow we'll tell Artemis and we'll set up a mission to get Miss Martian in there to fix Kaldur." He took a sip of his beer and bit the inside of his cheek.

Wally took a deep breath, "Okay, good. But won't it be suspicious if Kaldur is suddenly fine right after you guys just so happen to attack Black Manta's base?"

"M'gann isn't going to fix him completely. She explained it to me, but I'm not going to lie, it was confusing as hell." He took another sip of his drink, "She's going to put a mental block on all of the secrets that we need to protect. She's not going to fix his brain all of the way, but instead make sure that when Psimon fixes him he doesn't discover the mission. Only M'gann and Kaldur will be able to see past the mental wall. When Kaldur wakes up, he'll remember everything."

"Smart." Wally said, sighing. Things were still tense between Dick and Wally, but somehow their friendship was still intact. Hopefully it would stay that way.

"Look man, Artemis will be fine. Yeah, we hit a bump in the road, but we have this under control now." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Artemis is strong and smart and can get out of there alive if she needs to."

Wally flinched and chugged his whole beer. "This shit's going to turn me into an alcoholic. Jesus, I'm going to turn into Roy."

Both guys smirked and sat in silence.

Wally broke it quickly, though. "So how are things going with Barbara?"

Dick groaned, "Absolutely fabulous." He said sarcastically. Wally nodded for him to continue. "When I got home from Blüdhaven yesterday night I went to look for her where she should be patrolling in Gotham, but she wasn't there. I went back to the Hall of Justice where we were training before I left and she wasn't there either. Finally I found her at the Batcave, but she didn't say a word to me." He rubbed his eyes. "She just narrowed her eyes and walked away."

"What did you do to her?" Wally asked.

"I didn't do anything!"

Wally chuckled, "Yes you did, you don't know it, but you did. Didn't you say she knows you're lying to her?"

Dick nodded, "Yeah... and we got in a little fight before I left for Blüdhaven. But I told her that I wanted to talk to her about it! At least then I could wave her suspicions off."

"Well, when do you see her again?" said Wally.

"Tonight. I have to be at the manor for a Wayne charity event, seeing as the big guy is millions of light-years away, and Babs always goes with her dad." Dick said, finishing the last of his beer.

"Then there is your answer. Talk to her tonight. She won't get into a screaming fight with you in a giant room filled with bitchy socialites."

Dick snorted, "You don't know Babs, then."

Wally shook his head, "Shut up, that girl has a cooler head than you."

"No she doesn't, she just hides it a lot better than me."

Wally rolled his eyes and got up to throw away both of their empty cans. Dick couldn't believe how much more mature Wally had become since they had first met. They had all grown up, but Wally really become a man. He was no longer that happy hearted kid who took nothing seriously, but Dick could still see traces of his old self through the calm and serious demeanor Wally had now.

Dick looked at his watch and stood up. Wally walked back into the room, "You going?" He asked.

Dick nodded. "Yeah, I should probably get back to Gotham and get ready for the fundraiser thing. Thanks for the beers, man." Dick opened the door, but turned around before he left. "We're going to get Artemis back safe. I'll make sure of that."

Wally looked at the ground, his face somber. He didn't reply, he just nodded.

With that, Dick left.

* * *

Wayne Manor, 10:30 P.M.

Barbara Gordon walked into the crowded ballroom alone, her long red dress billowing past her toes and her hair cascading over her right shoulder in curls like a fiery waterfall. Her father was in Metropolis, they needed extra police force for a huge drug bust including over 5,000 criminals, so Babs' usual date for these events was miles away.

Yes, she knew it was pathetic that her father was her date. No, she did not care.

Barbara sat down at her usual table and tried to ignore the heavy weight of Dick's eyes on her from across the room. When she had gotten back from Blüdhaven she went directly back to the Batcave, where Dick found her an hour later. She didn't know what to say to him -she knew too much- so she just left without a word. She didn't want to give him a chance to talk to her because she knew it would just be more lies, more excuses she just didn't want to hear. He'd called her over ten times that night, but she just ignored them.

She could see the hurt on his face; she hasn't ignored him like this since eighth grade and that was over something much less complicated than what she was mad at him for now. Babs tried to look at him from across the room discreetly, hoping he wouldn't notice her gaze. He was dressed in an all black Armani suit with a simple white shirt and black tie, but boy oh boy did he fill that suit well. Barbara and Dick had always flirted around with each other, but their friendship had always been a platonic one; even though he had become a six foot tall god made of nothing but lean muscle. But recently, Babs always found her mind thinking of thoughts not meant for friends. She had come to realize years ago that Dick was gorgeous. Why ignore the obvious? But she had always been able to see past that because he's just ... _Dick. _Dick Grayson. The boy who convinced her to slip laxatives into snotty rich peoples' drinks, who had sleepover after sleepover with her for years, who has saved her life countless times. He was her friend, but now? She wasn't so sure. Yeah, when she was ten she had a stupid little crush on him which lasted a few months, but that was _nine years ago_. Those feelings had been replaced with something else, but Barbara recently found her mind reverting back to those feelings but less innocent. _Much _less innocent.

But she couldn't afford to think of him like that now. Hell, she couldn't before, but now she really couldn't. He was lying to her and he obviously had no intentions to stop, but one single sentence kept floating through Bab's head.

_Does he even trust me? _

There is usually nothing hidden between these two Batkids. Even if Dick is hiding something, once Barbara asks him about it he comes clean. But he has been pushing this off from her.

Babs also knew it was being ridiculous to be mad at him. He was putting the mission first, which is what every good leader would do, but their friendship pulled the short stick in the deal. Her emotions had been ranging from anger to sorrow since the other night. She was still pissed as hell at him for keeping this secret, but she felt so bad because he had so much weight on his shoulders. Usually when the weight became too much for him to bare he would ask Babs for help, but now he didn't want her there for him. It almost feels like she's been benched for the last game of the season and it _sucked. _

Barbara was pulled out of her deep thought when the whole room erupted with applause. She looked up and noticed Dick standing on the stage in front of the band, preparing to give a speech.

"Thank you all for being here. I'm sorry that my father couldn't be here tonight, he has fallen ill over the recent weeks, but he still wanted everyone to have a nice night. " Claps filled the room again and Dick waited for them to be silenced. "Have a good night everybody." He stepped off the stage and the music began playing again. The socialites began dancing to the slow melody that floated through the room, making it hard for Dick to cross the dance floor and get to Babs.

Barbara saw him coming and stood up to leave. Nope, she wasn't going to talk to him. If she did talk to him she'd probably hit him and _that_ would cause a scene. Babs squeezed through hundreds of people to reach the doors and stormed out of the room. She knew she was acting extremely immature, but she was in no mood to be lied to right now.

"Babs!" She heard from behind her as her heels clicked on the hardwood floors of the mansion. "C'mon, Babs, just let me talk to you." Dick ran up behind her, grabbed her shoulder, and spun her around.

He was hurt and confused and stressed and Babs could tell he had no idea what to do with her.

"Would you just talk to me?"

She looked around. Both of them were alone in a hallway far from the party.

"If I'm going to talk to you, we're going to do it in privacy because I want to know everything." Her voice was stone cold and it killed her to have to talk to him like this, but it had to be done.

Dick sighed, but then slowly nodded. She could already see him formulating a story to tell her. Both walked to his old room and shut the door quietly behind them. They had so many memories in this room, but it seemed cold and distant now. Dick no longer lived here and only small picture frames and an old Haly's Circus poster hung on the wall.

"Talk." Was all she could say. She wanted to keep her voice down; she knew they were well away from the party guests, but she didn't want to take the chance.

Dick sat down on the bed and took a deep breath. "I don't know what you want me to say."

"That's such bullshit, Dick. You're hiding something. Or at least you're trying to, because it's kind of obvious." Babs already knew what she needed to hear. Yeah, she had some holes in her whole understanding of the truth, but she wanted to hear it from him.

She needed to hear it from him.

Dick stayed silent and just stared at her. He didn't move a muscle and Barbara had to look away first. He wasn't going to tell her. Dick was just going to keep floating in his pool of deception, but Barbara was done.

"I know." She said, looking down at her feet.

"What?" Hs eyes had widened. There was no way she could possibly know. Well, maybe there was, she was Barbara Gordon after all.

Babs clenched her fists. "I followed you to Blüdhaven. I heard every little damn thing." She bit her bottom lip so hard there were teeth marks in her skin. "I know about Artemis... I know about what M'gann did to Kaldur and how she told Conner... I know that practically no one knows about this... I know you have been lying to me this whole time."

Dick stood up and ran his fingers through his hair. "Babs, this isn't what-"

"Oh, please! Grayson, I'm coming forward and telling you that I know! Stop trying to hide it from me! I get that you didn't tell me in the first place, but to try and keep the act up even though I saw everything is just plain stupid. You've been my best friend since fourth grade and it's so infuriating to think that you think I'm so simple minded. I know what I saw and heard! Artemis is still alive!" Her voice was rising rapidly, but Dick's face remained stolid, completely unmoving, but his eyes told another story. He hated having Babs mad at him and she could tell he was trying to find a solution to the problem.

That was Dick, always finding a solution.

Barbara caught her breath and shook her head. "Just tell me the truth." She whispered.

"You already know it." He mumbled in return.

"But I want to hear it from you! Why can't you do that for me?" She snapped.

"Because it means that I have been lying to you this whole time! I've been lying to everyone I love and care about! I put two of my closest friends in danger, I got one of them put into a coma, I got Mount Justice blown completely to shit, and I don't know what to do!" He punched the wall. "I don't want to say it out loud because I'll finally realize that I'm _just like him _and I can't stand it!"

Batman. He was talking about Batman.

Dick and Babs had talked about this before. Batman may have been their mentor and they were eternally grateful, but they didn't want to be anything like him. They didn't want to have to put people they cared about in danger and barely show any regret. That just wasn't them.

But Dick was right; this was something Batman would have done.

Both of them stared at each other with big eyes.

"I don't want to be him." He stammered, breaking the silence.

Babs just shook her head, "I need to think this through." God, she wanted to comfort him so much at that moment. He looked like a kicked puppy. She wanted to pull him into a hug and tell him that everything was going to be okay, but it wasn't. This was a risky plan, and Barbara was almost sure there were going to be casualties. Babs put her hand on his cheek and sighed. "You did the right thing... _strategically_..." It was all she could say. All she would say.

She walked out of the room without another word and straight to Bruce's study. She kicked off her annoying heels and opened the secret door to the Batcave behind the Grandfather Clock. She ran down the long stairs, loving the cold feeling of the stone below her feet.

The only thing Barbara wanted to do at that moment was go on patrol. She wanted to forget about the stupid party, the situation with Dick, _everything_. She was in her suit and on her motorcycle within minutes and the cool outside air invigorated her in ways she couldn't even explain. She shut the Com-Link in her cowl off; she didn't want to talk to anyone right now. Batgirl drove off into chilled night filled with emotions she knew she could only take out on the criminals in Gotham.

* * *

Dick remained in his room after his explosion with Babs. His head felt numb and all he wanted to do was sleep. He had completely forgotten about the party downstairs, but it didn't really matter. The guests would continue without him. The men of the Wayne house were very notorious for disappearing. And they had poor Tim to keep them company.

Dick couldn't think of a world without Babs and this fight felt terrifyingly permanent. Barbara had been there with him since the first year he'd started living in Gotham. She was the first girl he had ever had a crush on... well, besides a girl Raya back at the circus. Babs was the first person he had ever told about his parents. He felt like he was losing her, and he didn't know what to do. The words he had said before were completely true.

What he has become angers him to the core. He didn't like the new Dick Grayson, the one who puts people in danger and cares only about missions. He used to be able to joke about everything, he loved finding the bright light at the end of the tunnel in situations like this, but he just couldn't do it anymore. He'd grown so much more since he first started with the team, and he's not sure if he liked it or not.

Dick was broken out of his revenue when his Com-Link beeped in his pocket. He sighed and put it in his ear.

"Nightwing." He mumbled, clearing his throat.

"Rob! It's me!" Artemis' voice echoed throughout his head and fear shot through Dick like a bullet.

"Artemis? Are you okay? What happened?" She had been ordered to never use the Com-Link unless it was an emergency. Dick couldn't handle any more stress right now. If anything happened to Artemis, that would be on him; Wally would never forgive him. He would lose three friends in one night.

"I'm fine, it's all alright. But you have to warn the team. The Light have discovered that there is a mole on their ship. They don't know it's me, but they know that it's someone related to the team. They plan on capturing someone on the team and using them to find out who the spy is." Artemis sounded truly terrified.

"When?"

"Now! You have to get the team to safety."

"I will. Get off the Com-Link before someone see's you. I'll try and reach you as soon as possible. Be safe." Dick disconnected the link and immediately contacted Miss Martian. He explained everything to her and she quickly gathered Conner, Garfield, and L'gann into the safety bunker in the Hall of Justice. He then contacted Mal, Karen, Jaime, Cassie, Wally and Bart who he directed immediately to get to the Hall, too. He tried being as vague as possible to all of them. Dick tried contacting Babs, but her Com-Link wouldn't respond.

"Come on, Babs. Please..." Dick ran back down to the party and quickly grabbed Tim. "We have to go. Major emergency. Go get your suit on and get to the Hall of Justice." He said to Tim as they rushed to the Batcave.

"Where is Barbara?" Tim asked, looking around the cave.

Dick pinched the bridge of his nose. "I don't know. She turned off her Com-Link and GPS locator. There's no chance of me finding her by technology. God, how can she be so stupid?"

Tim's eyes widened. Dick never referred to Barbara as anything even nearly remotely dumb.

"Go, get to the Hall." Dick said, ushering Tim, who was now in his Robin suit, to get going towards the nearest Zeta-Tube. "I'll be there as soon as I find her."

Tim Zeta'd to the Hall as Dick dressed in his Nightwing gear and rode off on his motorcycle into the night.

He had to find her. This was Babs and no matter how mad she was at him she still needed his help, even if she didn't know it yet.

* * *

Batgirl was standing on top of an old set of apartment buildings in a deserted part of Gotham. The buildings in this section of the city were all condemned so no one lived there, but usually back alley crimes would occur there. The place was totally deserted though.

Babs sighed and rubbed her eyes. She needed something to distract her from what was going on right now, but apparently that wasn't going to happen. She was about to turn around and go somewhere else in the city, but a blinding light shined directly in her eyes. Over thirty dark figures seemingly fell out of the sky around her, guns pointed at her chest and head. They all wore the Black Manta suits.

Batgirl was an excellent fighter, she didn't need to be modest, but she couldn't dream of taking on thirty men at once. She couldn't fight them all; she had to run. She quickly threw an explosive batarang in front of all of them and turned to jump off of the roof, but a sharp pain in her left hip stopped her from going anywhere. She fell to the ground, clenching her side.

"Jesus Christ!" She'd been shot. Her face crumpled up in pain as she applied pressure to the wound. Her armor had slowed the bullet down, but it still cut through two inches of her body. The batarang exploded, causing Barbara's ears to ring in response to the loud BANG that boomed from it. The explosion only took out about five of the men though, and soon they were all around her. She managed to hook her elbow out and hit one of the opponents' kneecaps as she laid defenseless on the ground. She heard a snap as the man fell next to her, crying out in pain. She managed a small smirk, but her joy was short lived.

She felt a white-hot pain in the back of her head before everything went black.


	5. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: Hey, sorry it has been so long since I have last updated; my school work is hectic... And I am a tad bit lazy. I had a few hours today to type this all up and post it. I have a few more chapters planned out, but I'm not sure how many more yet. Enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice or any of these characters, unfortunately.**

* * *

Dick had always been a patient guy; at least no one had told him otherwise. He liked to keep his head planted firmly on his shoulders in stressful situations so he could keep everyone alive and safe. He'd always tried his best to not worry so the others would stay calm, too. But right now, as he sat on a couch in the Hall of Justice, Richard Grayson was a mess.

Dick had searched all of Gotham for anywhere Barbara could be. He had been running along rooftops looking for a sign of anything or anyone. He'd heard an explosion followed by a gunshot quickly after. The noise had come from one of the worst parts of Gotham, which was almost ten minutes away even at his top running speed and his motorcycle was a few blocks away where he ditched it, so there was no time to retrieve it. Nightwing ran so fast that he's surprised his lungs didn't just jump right out of his chest and call it quits, he jumped across gaps in roofs that he normally wouldn't have dared cross; but it wasn't enough. About a quarter of a mile away, Dick could see a large group of people standing at the top of the building where the initial blast had come from. All of the perpetrators were huddled in a circle around something.

Or someone.

He was getting closer to the scene when, seemingly, in the blink of an eye, a huge jet soared over the building where the men congregated. The black jet hovered over the building and the men began to load onto it using stairs that had descended from the belly of the craft. Dick was only five buildings away. He would make it, he was sure of it. Only a few men (who he now recognized as Black Manta's soldiers) remained on the roof now and one bent down to pick something up, which almost stopped Nightwing dead in his tracks. One of the men held Barbara in his arms, her body limp.

Only one building away.

The remaining men stepped onto the stairs, one of them limping, and stepped inside the ship taking Babs with them. "No!" Dick shouted. He soared across to the building where the men and Barbara had just been, but the jet was already flying away. He had stood frozen in place for what seemed like hours, staring off into the space the jet had been just moments ago. He hadn't even managed to plant a GPS on one of the men.

He had failed.

Dick held his head in between his knees as he sat on the couch in a separate room from the rest of the team. All of this was his fault. If he had told Barbara about the plan in the first place she would have never been mad and would have never gone off like that.

"I know how you feel." Dick's head shot up. Who could possibly know how he felt right now? Babs was his best friend and it was all on him that she was in danger. Dick was ready to snap at the poor unsuspecting person trying to help, but when his eyes focused on Wally he stopped himself.

_Oh. _

Dick finally realized how Wally must have felt all of this time now.

"I know how close you two were..." Wally, who had donned his Kid Flash suit for the first time since Impulse arrived, sat next to Nightwing and sighed. "... _are._" He corrected himself. Dick just nodded and took a deep breath. The whole team had been sent to the Hall of Justice to be protected; the whole team except for Batgirl. Dick rubbed his neck and looked at his other closest friend. Even with the mask covering his eyes, the despair was obvious on Dick's face and Wally could see it. "We'll find her. I promise. The team will find her... but they need their leader, Nightwing. They need to be led. She's been missing for almost ten hours now and we need to come up with a plan."

Dick clenched his jaw and nodded. "I'll go talk to the tea-" His Comm-Link beeped in his ear.

"Nightwing?" Artemis' voice rang out.

"Artemis? Artemis! They have Batgirl! Can you get any information on where they have her?" Wally's eyes shot open and he rushed over next to Dick. If anyone could find Babs right now it would be her.

He could hear Artemis audibly sigh, "I...I know where she is, Rob. Black Manta has her. I don't want to alarm you, but it is not pretty. She was pretty banged up before they even got her here..." Her voice wavered. "We're in a ship at the bottom of the Atlantic. Not too far from the coast of Maryland. I'll turn on a GPS locator. Hurry." She disconnected the link before Dick could say anything.

"What did she say?" Wally asked. Dick could see the disappointment on his face from not being able to talk to his girlfriend, even only for a moment.

"She's on the same ship as Babs." Dick made his way into the other room where the whole team sat, their faces somber.

"What are we going to do?" Kid Flash ran up besides Nightwing.

"I have a plan." He said to Wally. "And I think we are going to be able to shoot two birds with one stone." Nightwing faced the team, his face hard and determined, "Listen up everybody..."

* * *

Everything was blurry. Barbara couldn't focus her eyes on anything particular for too long without her head screaming. _Most likely concussed from a blow to the head..._ Babs thought. She had woken up with her arms and legs strapped down to a metal table. At first she was too disoriented to even notice she was in trouble, but she was able to collect enough thoughts to soon realize her situation. The Kevlar suit she wore was soaked with her own blood, she had a gunshot wound to the hip, and head trauma. The only thing that she remembered was Black Manta's men coming at her and then her head started hurting again from straining her brain too much.

The straps on her wrists and ankles were way too tight for Barbara to even think of getting out of them by force and even if her hands weren't tied above her head she wouldn't have been able to reach her utility belt seeing as it was placed oh so conveniently (Hint: sarcasm) across the room right next to her cowl.

Trying to keep her eyes trained on one thing at a time, Barbara managed to scan her surroundings. She was on a metal table in the center of a dark room. Everything that she could see was shiny and silver and looked like something out of a horror movie. The room smelled terribly like formaldehyde making her feel even more nauseous than she already was. Her eyes scanned the room for more details and a shiver ran down her spine when they settled on a wall of weapons - no doubt - to torture her with. Needles the length of her foot, various assortments of knives, brass knuckles, tasers, hammers, saws; anything you can think of that would cause pain was hanging on this wall. Wall of Terrors sounded like a fitting name.

"This is going to be fabulous." Barbara muttered to herself. As she was calming herself with deep breaths a door on the far side of the room slid open without a sound. A tall figure that Babs quickly recognized as one of the Reach stepped through the door.

"Why am I here? Why did you take me?" Barbara spoke with the fiercest voice she could muster, fighting through the pain that vibrated her brain. Her head hurt so much that it completely drowned out the pain that she should be feeling from her gunshot wound.

The alien growled at her, "Do not speak until you are spoken to, meat."

Don't taunt them, Babs. "But you just spoke to me now, so I take that as initiative to talk again. So please answer my previous question: _Why am I here?_"

The Reach narrowed his eyes. "My name is..." He made a series of clicking noises with his mouth that Babs wouldn't have been able to do even when her brain didn't feel like goo. She opted to just refer to him as Moron. "You are here because we need to extract information from you. Usually we would just have the psychic take the data we need from your mind, but unfortunately he is busy." Moron walked over to the Wall of Terrors. A gut wrenching smile spread across his face as he grabbed a metal rod and held it over a flame, the end becoming white hot. "So we'll just have to obtain your secrets in a different manner. Personally, I'll find this way more enjoyable; I always like to see what makes you meat _squeal."_

Babs clenched her jaw and swallowed. She'd never been outright tortured before. Of course she'd experienced pain while on patrol and during fights, but never has she felt so powerless. She could at least defend herself when she was in a fight, but now her hands and legs were tied down and she could barely move.

"Who is the spy your team has planted upon us, meat?" Moron walked over to Babs holding the practically molten metal rod right above her gunshot wound. So they know that there is a mole?

She did _not _like where this was going. But no matter what she went through, she could never tell. She would never forgive herself for giving up Artemis, who she'd known for years; and anyway, they would probably just kill her right then and there once she'd told them.

"Answer me." Moron had a very cynical look upon his face; it made Babs shiver. She shook her head enough for him to see that she was declining, but not enough to make her head hurt more than it already did. "Fine. More fun for me than." He smiled as he pressed the hot end of the rod into her gunshot wound. Pain radiated throughout her whole body; her vision went white and Babs could feel her back involuntarily arch off of the table. Moron mercilessly laughed and pressed the rod further into her hip. She could feel her skin burning and she could _smell _it too. Her screams echoed off of the walls and at that moment Barbara didn't know if her head or her hip caused her more pain. Moron yanked the metal rod out of Barbara's hip and tilted his head to the side. Tears squeezed past her eyelids; her hands and feet were shaking uncontrollably from the pain.

"Are you going to tell me now?" He asked. Barbara narrowed her eyes and tried her best to cease her limbs from shaking. She remained silent giving him the deadliest look she could muster. _If only looks could kill_, Babs found herself thinking.

"I see." Moron pulled a small knife off of the wall and walked back towards Barbara's table.

Her voice was shaky, "You kn-know, for an advanced a-a-alien your torture methods are v-very barbaric." Somehow she managed to form her mouth into a weak smirk.

"Quiet." He took Barbara's hand and spread her middle finger and pointer finger apart, placing the blade on the skin in between them. "Now, don't make me ask again. Who. Is. The. Mole?"

Barbara braced herself for the pain that was to come and shook her head, "I have no idea. I didn't even know there _was_ a spy." Babs had to play this smart. If she gave too much away, they could discover Artemis' identity; but if she actually made them believe that she didn't know who the mole was then they would just kill her right then and there. Her ultimate goal right that moment was to stay alive, even if it meant enduring the torture.

Moron didn't say anything, he just sliced the skin in between her fingers. It burned like hell, but Babs was able to hold herself back from shouting out. He continued to make more cuts between each finger, causing bile to rise in her throat. Moron walked over to the wall again and pulled a bottle of clear liquid off of a shelf.

Barbara had a bad feeling that it wasn't water in there.

_Boy_, was she right. Have you ever shaved and nicked yourself and then put lotion or aftershave on right after it and it burned that little cut like the sun burns the Irish? That's because of the alcohol in the aftershave/lotion. A little bit of alcohol and a small scratch equals a lot of pain. So deep gashes in between fingers and 100% pure alcohol from the Wall of Terrors? Let's just say that Babs was not going to be having a fun day.

Methods like this had gone on for hours, but Barbara managed to keep Artemis' alias a secret. Moron had left when another one of the Reach summoned him, leaving Babs in the room alone again. Her gunshot wound - now burned from the rod - radiated pain throughout her body, her hands were soaked with blood and no matter what she did she couldn't stop them from shaking now, her head was pounding, and she had a split lip. These were the only things hurting her _now._ For hours, Moron had taken to a more electric method. Hours of electricity running through her veins was possibly the worst thing that she had ever experienced. Moron knew the perfect amount of electricity to still cause pain, but it wasn't enough to kill her.

Barbara laid in silence, trying to calm herself as much as possible, when the door opened again. Instead of one of the Reach, Tigress walked in, her face stone cold.

"I have been directed to watch over you." She said, blatantly. If Babs didn't know any better, she would have not even noticed that Artemis recognized her. Artemis was almost as good of an actor as someone in the Bat Family.

"Listen to me. Don't you dare give up your cover." Babs said under her breath. Tigress' eyes barely widened, but Barbara was able to notice it. "If they tell you to do anything to me, you don't give it a second thought. You've given up too much to waste it away because of me."

Artemis paused; she was facing the wall, her back to Barbara. "How did you find out?"

"Nightwing's a good liar, but not to me." Babs chuckled, but instantly regretted it. Her hip was enveloped in pain and she winced.

"Help is on the way, Babs." Her voice softened. There were probably cameras watching both of them, so they ceased talking.

Both of them sat there in silence; Barbara beaten and bloody and Artemis who looked nothing like she used to. When Barbara had first joined the team, Artemis was still there. They had been pretty close considering Dick was Babs' best friend, Wally was Dick's best friend, and Artemis was dating Wally. Artemis' posture was stiff and uptight and she was practically jumping out of her skin because she wasn't allowed to help Barbara. Babs was hurt and shaking and vulnerable and it killed Artemis to see her this way. She could barely even stand to look at the poor girl. _Maybe I can break her out without getting caught..._The thought floated through her head multiple times, but a device on her belt started shrilly beeping, making Barbara wince.

Artemis pressed a button on the device, "Tigress." She stated.

"Put the meat to sleep. There is chloroform on a shelf." The other line disconnected.

Artemis hesitated for a moment before looking back at Barbara, "I don't have to..."

"Do it." Babs said sternly. "God knows I could use the sleep."

Artemis nodded and uncapped a small bottle, pouring the liquid onto the only piece of cloth around (which just so happened to be drenched in Babs' blood). Artemis took a deep breath and held the cloth over Barbara's mouth and nose. The chloroform smelled sickly sweet and made her eyes become even more blurry than they already were, but now it felt good and welcome. She felt her eyes drifting shut and the more she breathed in the liquid, the more the pain she was feeling drifted away. Eventually, Babs stopped thinking completely and fell into the only solace she could manage from the misery.

* * *

**Author's Note: My prayers and condolences go out to those who lost loved ones and their lives in Sandy Hook Elementary School. No child or teacher should have to fear going to school and I am extremely saddened that innocent people had to suffer. **


End file.
